WORDS
David Annand
It’s the polo shirt that redefined James Bond. But before that, it was the polo shirt that redefined the polo shirt. Sunspel’s iconic Riviera Polo was first created back in the 1950s when Peter Hill, one of two brothers who owned the business at the time, went to the French Riviera and discovered the then-dominant cotton piqué polo was too heavy for the steamy days of a Mediterranean summer. On his return to the Sunspel factory in Nottingham, once the capital of the global lace trade, he revived the company’s disused lacemaking machines, using them to develop what became known as Q75, an innovative mesh fabric that is both lightweight and breathable and was to be used exclusively for the company’s new polo shirt. For the next 50 years, the Riviera Polo was a favourite of stylish English gents summering in St Tropez, prized for its easy-wearing elegance.
It wasn’t until 2006, however, that the shirt really exploded into the global consciousness. Famed costume designer Lindy Hemming was tasked with overhauling 007’s wardrobe for Casino Royale, the film that would reimagine James Bond for the 21st century, moving the character on to something more relaxed and modern. The Riviera Polo was pretty much the perfect piece in this regard: a classic British design that was both casual and refined at the same time.
Working in tandem with the Sunspel designers, Hemming set out to recut the Riviera Polo so it fit Daniel Craig’s newly buff physique: shorter in the sleeve, more fitted across the chest and slimmer overall.
As Sunspel’s current design director David Telfer explains it was a game-changing moment for the company: ‘For a British brand to have this iconic British character wearing your product in a film with such global resonance was massive. It really pushed the company into ready-to-wear and was a huge moment for Sunspel.’
The Casino Royale version of the Riviera Polo is the one the company sells today. The only change they’ve made since the film came out has been to improve the cotton. ‘Traceability is really important to us,’ says Telfer. ‘We want to know exactly where the cotton is coming from, so we now use Supima cotton from California. It’s a better grade of cotton, which means it takes the colour better.’
To keep things fresh, they introduce new colourways every year, and Telfer is particularly excited about one of this season’s shirts in a new darker navy called Midnight: “Increasingly we’re seeing people wear polos with suiting, and I really like Midnight’s deep navy colour drenching, which keeps everything deep and dark and looking really good.”
The Riviera Polo working so well with suits is just one part of its versatility: ‘Over the last few years menswear has got smarter, and we are seeing a lot of people wearing the Riviera Polo with a jacket or a suit. But it also looks really great with a suede jacket, or a zip-up Harrington, and it’s one of those products that looks really good on its own with chinos and a pair of sunglasses.’
Unsurprisingly, the French Riviera remains a source of inspiration for Sunspel. ‘This season we’ve been looking at the work of the German photographer Herbert List. He made beautiful black-and-white photographs of the golden age of travel, which capture that era’s timeless sense of style.’ Something that could be said of the Riviera Polo, too.
